MARKET-day shoppers and business owners in Sudbury have been left frustrated by power cuts for the second time this month.

Problems first arose just after 11am, causing chaos in several parts of town.

Barclays Bank was hampered when its computer system went down, and shoppers at the Iceland store in North Street had to abandon their baskets mid-aisle as they were asked to leave the shop when the lights went out.

Sudbury is already dealing with upheaval caused by road works in the town centre associated with the installation of a raised crossing. There are also significant road works at two main entry points to the town, with traffic lights in Melford Road, and road closures in Waldingfield Road.

Earlier this month, several of the town’s major stores including Winch and Blatch were left without power for seven hours.

The fault which led to today’s blackout is believed to have started in an overhead power line on the A134 close to the town, where it was reported that there was a fire in the cable.

A spokesman for UK Power Networks said engineers worked as quickly as safely possible to restore power supplies to 279 customers in the Chaucer Road and Canterbury Road area of Sudbury, following a problem with equipment on the overhead network at 10.54am.

He added: “The fault originally affected several thousand customers in parts of Sudbury, Long Melford and Acton but supplies to all apart from 279 customers were restored in stages between 11.19am and 11.52am.

“We believe the (initial) problem caused an underground cable fault affecting the Market Hill area of Sudbury at the same time, but all customers in this area were restored by 12.26pm. We appreciate how difficult it is to be without electricity and apologise to all those affected.”

The power outage is not believed to be related to roadworks.